Reply to Jdnut:
From what I remember of the stories he told, They took the truck body and added a bigger engine and more transmissions for their specific purpose. He used to say that an inproperly trained driver would burn out the low gears if they did not use it right. I wish I had written some of what he said down now, but I was too young at the time to think of it. He also had some pictures of American tanks that had taken direct hits.... I wish I could find some of those now. He and his son did not get along so most of these treasures were lost when he died. This picture was sent to my grandfather (his brother) thatis how I got it.
Chris
My family still uses an Army surplus lowboy like the one pictured above.
The axels have been swaped out with oil bath 10 hole units,and the wheels have been replaced with with low proflie wheels.
We still have the loading ramps pictured above the axels, but use them on the wash rack to pressure was the underside of crawlers.
We no longer have to move those heavy ramps when had the deck rebuilt while the axels were upgraded to change it into a tilt bed trailer.
One of the water districts out here even had a crane panted OD Green like the one pictured in the background of the picture.